This disclosure relates to a gas turbine engine. More particularly, the disclosure relates to an under-root spacer for a space within a fan hub slot and for applying a load to the root.
Gas turbine engines typically include a compressor section, a combustor section and a turbine section. During operation, air is pressurized in the compressor section and is mixed with fuel and burned in the combustor section to generate hot combustion gases. The hot combustion gases are communicated through the turbine section, which extracts energy from the hot combustion gases to power the compressor section and other gas turbine engine loads.
A fan section is driven by the turbine section and includes circumferentially arranged fan blades mounted on a fan hub. Roots of the fan blades are supported within correspondingly shaped slots in the fan hub. A space is provided beneath the root and the bottom of the slot, and the size of this space varies at each circumferential location due to manufacturing tolerances.
Fan blade roots tend to wear from friction during windmill conditions. One type of under-root spacer has been used which is inserted into the space by elastically compressing using a bolted connection. However, this technique may result in load variation between different fan blade circumferential locations, which is undesirable. Consistent loads at each circumferential location are desired to prevent movement within the slot and root wear.